Sometimes you need a book to pick you up and take you somewhere else. That is exactly what Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is doing to me.
Meet Quentin Coldwater. When I did, I immediately fell in love. He’s a nerd so pure he actually manages to transcend his own stereotype. He loves math and physics. He is still obsessed with his favorite childhoods books. He learns magic tricks in his free time, and he’s head over heels in love with a girl who dates his best friend. And, best of all, he wants to believe that our world contains portals to the worlds beyond.
Readers can relate to Quentin right off the bat because, just like us, he reads as a form of escapism. And, just like us, he wishes that that magic worlds exist.
Of course, within the first 50 pages Quentin finds out that a magical world does exist. But before you write off this book as another fantasy with that “same old, same old” plot, read on.
I’ll admit I’ve only just begun the book but already it draws elements from some of my favorite fantasy stories. Of course with fantasy literature it is almost impossible to write something devoid of cliche, and there are traces of the typical “misplaced boy who finds a magic world” story (e.g. Harry Potter, The Subtle Knife, The Magician’s Nephew), but The Magicians is not a children’s book. The language alone defines the novel. It is written with the skill of someone who has planned a masterpiece and demands to be taken seriously. The fast pace of the novel draws you in. The plot delivers a complexity by the second chapter, and each subsequent chapter ends with a faint abruptness causing you to quickly turn to the next page.
More credit should be given to books that are written purely for escape. Far too often when I work in Oz I see adults creep back to the fantasy shelf and act ashamed as they select the next Olympian or Eragon novel. I make it a point to applaud their choices. Everyone needs to read something that gives them a breath of the impossible, which is exactly what The Magicians is doing for me.
-Nell
Comments are closed.